January 2, 2011
Here’s an odd duck: a fashion brand starting up in Amsterdam that caters to the rained upon cyclist. On their website Madame de Pé announces that they will open up for business in February, but their Facebook page provides a glimpse of what can be expected.
Link: Dutch in Dublin. Photos: Facebook / Madame de Pé.
December 21, 2010
Dutch designer Frieke Severs has come up with ‘Footstickers’ for Nike. She’s probably better known for her FiveFingers made by Vibram, but either way, her footware looks pretty cool to me. Footstickers are made of a flexible material and a unique shape are are meant for activities such as yoga and cardio excercises.
I can’t help but add two cultural comments for the non-Dutch speaking crowd. First, in Dutch, gloves are called ‘handschoenen’, which literally translates to ‘hand shoes’. Second, ‘halve zolen’ (singular, ‘halve zool’), two words in the title of the link below, means ‘idiot’ in Dutch. I love a good linguistic coincidence.
(Link and image: idealize)
December 18, 2010
These winged women’s shoes were designed by Marloes ten Bhömer and were 3D printed using photo polymer material.
The advantage would seem to be that you can have them made to fit your feet perfectly. The Rapidprototypeshoe is on display at the Design Museum Holon in Israel until 8 January 2011, where visitors can apparently have a pair made to measure for themselves.
(Link: Bright. Photo: Marloes ten Bhömer.)
Tags: 3D printing, Duiven, shoes
December 2, 2010
A film nobody has really been waiting for is coming out on 9 December: the New Kids film ‘Turbo’. Website Flabber also tell us that they’ll be a German version of the film as well because these wild and crazy guys have fans in Germany. Yes, it sounds and even looks like an American film trailer, but do not be fooled by the voice-over! The English subtitles are both inaccurate on purpose and not on purpose (the swear word ‘kut’ (used like ‘damn’ or ‘shit’, but meaning ‘cunt’) is left intact, while ‘your fired’ should be ‘you’re fired’. And it’s so not about the dialogue.
From the province of Noord-Brabant or just Brabant (there’s no South Brabant, that would be Brabant in Belgium and a long story), the New Kids are popular because they represent relatively modern Dutch white trash with accompanying music, known as happy hardcore and matching late 1990s clothing: sporty camping comfort with mustaches and mullet hairdoes.
“They’re basically always drunk, driving around and destroying everything that comes in their way, which sometimes leads to getting a good beating themselves.”
For the beginners, it’s time to learn what ‘doe normaal!’ (literally, ‘act normal’!, meaning ‘stop it!’), a lesson you’ll not soon forget.
(Link: flabber)
Tags: North Brabant, swearing, white trash
November 23, 2010
Dutch inventor Rachel De Boer had wrinkels in her cleavage at an age when women don’t usually have them, and decided to come up with a way to get rid of them.
Her bra, called La Decollette (in Dutch, ‘cleavage’ is ‘decolleté’, from the French ‘décolleté’), is now being sold in about 100 lingerie shops in the Netherlands. It’s not a bra you wear during the day, it’s something you wear at night to keep your breasts apart, tightening the skin in between. It’s not sexy to go to bed with, granted, but if we can believe the results and the news item on telly, it makes a real difference.
I had heard of breast pillows that do the same thing, but this product obviously looks different and more confortable.
Necessity remains the mother of invention. I tend to just stay out of the sun like an 18th century European aristocrat.
(Links: telegraph.co.uk, Photo: decollette.nl)
October 25, 2010
Major Australian cities have decided to ban some Calvin Klein jeans adverts because they are “suggestive of violence and rape”. The sexy pic, shot by British based fashion photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, show Dutch model Lara Stone “fooling around with a group of half naked guys in what looks like a public basketball court.”
No, no wait. Stop. That’s not what I saw. I saw a painfully orchestrated yet very unplausible photo of a girl that’s getting way too much attention due to her choice of (and lack of) jeans. The guy on the left is bored with the entire deal, too busy looking like James Dean, the one holding her head is not pinning her down or anything and the guy giving Lara some attention looks almost too young and inexperienced to be doing so. Granted, it looks like the light version of a gang bang where everybody looks nice and friendly, and it could be provocative to adults if you were living in a cave and missed out on Madonna’s book ‘Sex’ and oh so many other things. If it was a Jean Paul Gaultier perfume advert with just men, would people have said anything? Or all women? Or women tearing up some young guy’s shirt? Hm?
Granted, young children won’t get this and it is risqué, but this kind of advertising is not going away any time soon. Selling jeans hasn’t been about actually seeing jeans for about 15 years. If you want to protect your kids, educate them, methinks.
(Link: dutchdailynews)
Tags: advertising, Australia, jeans, Lara Stone
August 26, 2010
According to the Volkskrant, only one student has registered to study Frisian this year at the University of Groningen, the only university in the country that offers a Bacherlor’s and Master’s degree in the country’s second official language.
Professor Goffe Jensma said on a local radio show in Groningen that new rules allowing universities to set their own fees for second degrees was at the heart of the problem. Grytsje Nicolaij, who already has a degree as a musicologist, was planning to study Fries on the side to keep up with family and friends who spoke the language better than he did. If the university does not attract more students (how many, we don’t know) before October 1, Grytsje will have to brush up on his Frisian elsewhere.
What does Frisian sound like?
Frisian Duo Twarres had a huge hit with ‘Wêr Bisto’ (‘Live, with a Dutch translation). The girl is the guitarist, the guy is the back up singer and they are childhood friends:
Frisian model Doutzen Kroes (L’Oréal, Victoria’s Secret) promotes her mother tongue:
(Link: volkskrant, via dutchnews)
Tags: Doutzen Kroes, Frisian, Groningen, Twarres
July 24, 2010
The fashionistas of daily newspaper De Pers predict the return of Speedo-like swim wear.
Swim suits are already out of fashion for women the paper concluded while prowling the Bloemendaal beach where bikinis, especially the ones with triangular patch tops, were in an overwhelming majority.
The brightly coloured swim brief is already replacing the Bermuda for men, which only accounted for 65% of the sales.
A fairly recent fashion among both boys and girls is to wear underwear beneath swimming trunks, with the underwear brand name prominently exposed. In 2008 public pools started outlawing the combination, citing hygienic concerns. Underwear manufacturer Björn Borg told De Pers that it saw an increase in sales of microfibre shorts, which dry faster. The brand has also started to produce its own line of swimming trunks.
(Photo of some kids on their way to the Scheveningen beach by FaceMePLS, some rights reserved)
Tags: bikinis, swimming clothes
March 20, 2010
A cosmetics brand is looking for the best looking man of the Netherlands aged 50 or more.
Candidates include actor Tom Hofman, DJ Erik de Zwart (photo) and musician Frank Boeijen. The election is part of a campaign for the brand’s line of hair colouring for men.
Voting is simply a matter of studying 10 photos (one per candidate), clicking the Stem (Vote) button, and filling out and submitting your e-mail address.
It is not clear to me when the voting period ends, so vote quickly. The results will be made public at the end of April. According to the website’s disclaimer, the cosmetics people may use your e-mail address to spam you, and they will become the owner of everything you send to them, so be careful about what you submit.
(Source photo: Wikimedia Commons)
December 30, 2009
While the first ever Latin American same-sex couple recently got married in Argentina and another one got arrested for doing so in Malawi, Amsterdam will hold its first ever wedding fair for gays and lesbians on February 14, Valentine’s Day 2010. The fair will feature some 50 stands at the Westergasfabriek in West Amsterdam. Already married same-sex couples can visit the fair for free upon showing their marriage certificate.
Since 1st April 2001 gays and lesbians have been allowed to marry in the Netherlands and it was the first country to allow same-sex marriages.
(Link: depers.nl, Photo of Gay flag in Amsterdam by Remon Rijper, some rights reserved)
Tags: homosexuals, weddings
